If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

I already screen all "new members", and spammers are pretty easy to identify. We're really just talking about ways to block known spammer IP's.

I don't want to start any kind of a fight here, but if new members are screened, how are they allowed to post the spam? Moderate them, don't allow anything they post to go out without someone looking at it and approving it first, for at least the first post and see what they are going to do. If it is some kind of spam delete them. Problem solved. It is a little extra work, but I haven't had any trouble with the other list.

Originally Posted by Mapachi

There are a lot of us. Can't we turn this on them and flood them somehow? Heh, heh, heh, heh.

I don't want to start any kind of a fight here, but if new members are screened, how are they allowed to post the spam? Moderate them, don't allow anything they post to go out without someone looking at it and approving it first, for at least the first post and see what they are going to do. If it is some kind of spam delete them. Problem solved. It is a little extra work, but I haven't had any trouble with the other list.

They are not screen in the way you are thinking. WhereRWe get notified by email every time a new user registers and it tells him there user info but that is all he gets.

Ekidokai you mentioned that you run a list. Do you run a forum someplace else or is it just a mailing list?

I don't want to start any kind of a fight here, but if new members are screened, how are they allowed to post the spam?

New members are not "screened". When someone joins, the geocachingmaine.org system sends me an email with basic information on the new member so I can send a welcome message to the new member. Since we started getting a lot of spammers, I started checking the IP address of the new member and when I see one that's suspicious, like with an obviously phony name or from one of the "known" spam sources, I forward the messgae to the webmaster who makes the decision to delete the new member or let them stay.

Originally Posted by Ekidokai

Moderate them, don't allow anything they post to go out without someone looking at it and approving it first, for at least the first post and see what they are going to do. If it is some kind of spam delete them. Problem solved. It is a little extra work, but I haven't had any trouble with the other list.

I don't think the system has the capability to "hold" a message for review before it becomes public. Anyway, Rick is pretty cautious about letting "moderators" into the system.

I continue to think that blocking the IP's the spam is coming from will make a difference.

Yahoo

They are not screen in the way you are thinking. WhereRWe get notified by email every time a new user registers and it tells him there user info but that is all he gets.

Ekidokai you mentioned that you run a list. Do you run a forum someplace else or is it just a mailing list?

It's the Maine Firefighters mailing list in yahoo. The way it works is anybody can join, but each membership has to be approved by one of the two moderators I have set up. Then when they are approved they can send messages to the list. But all new members are moderated. That means that what the new member posts has to be looked at and approved before it gets posted. After the first post you can tell what the new guy is up to. And that is when I usually let them post freely. Never had any problems with it yet.

Usually spamers don't come back if their membership has to be approved, but a few have, and then we delete them after they submitted some junk. That way nothing gets posted to bother the membership.

It seems like more work than it is. We usually approve most anybody. The post reviews only take a minute once in a great while. In a year I think I have spent about 10 minutes total on the whole review thing. Works great that way.

Now how to set it up? I have no clue. Yahoo does all that. I just know it has never failed. I have been doing it since 2000 I think.